Double O Section is a blog for news and reviews of all things espionage–-movies, books, comics, TV shows, DVDs, and everything else.

Sep 25, 2013

TV Review: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Pilot (2013)

“What does S.H.I.E.L.D. stand
for, Agent Ward?” asks S.H.I.E.L.D. honcho Maria Hill (guest star Cobie
Smulders, familiar to audiences from playing the role in Marvel’s The
Avengers). And this brief exchange isn’t just in there for the sake of
exposition. It is a crucial bit of exposition, of course, at the beginning of a
show called Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. designed to appeal to far broader audiences
than ever picked up an issue of Jim Steranko’s groundbreaking 1960s run on the
comic book Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., but it also serves to brilliantly
set the tone for executive producer Joss Whedon’s take on the concept. Whedon,
who also directed the Marvel Avengers movie, directs the pilot episode of the
series, and co-writes with Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen.

“Strategic Homeland
Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division,” replies the vaguely Bondian
super-agent Grant Ward (Brett Dalton), who we’ve just watched retrieve a
MacGuffin (a Chitauri neural link, for those who care) from a bad guy’s Parisian
apartment while taking enough time to flirt with the villain’s lingerie-clad mistress
and dispatch a team of thugs before dangling from a helicopter to make his
escape over the rooftops of the City of Lights. There’s the exposition, telling
people what, exactly, they’re watching. (And reminding long-term fans that the
acronym’s meaning has changed over the years.) Except… well, that’s really no
answer, is it? What are audiences to make of that assembly of non sequiturs?
Agent Hill presses further.

“And what does that mean to you?”

“It means someone really wanted
our initials to spell out S.H.I.E.L.D.,” he responds. pausing before adding
more seriously, “It means we’re the line. Between the world… and the much
weirder world. We protect people from news they aren’t ready to hear. And when
we can’t do that, we keep them safe.” And so the exchange serves to set the
tone for the whole series. This is a S.H.I.E.L.D. series, fully subscribing to
both the premise of the comics (an U.N.C.L.E.-like espionage agency taken to
comic book extremes, tasked with taking on super powers and super science that
would be laughable in a Bond movie), but it’s also a Joss Whedon series (he previously created Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel and Firefly),
self-aware and referential, with a clear sense of humor even in the face of
inevitable tragedy. (Whedon loves tragedy.) It’s a Whedon take on S.H.I.E.L.D.
As a fan of both, I found it difficult to reconcile the two based on the somewhat
schizophrenic promos for the series, but that one exchange makes it entirely
clear to me what that will be like, and that it will work.

Whedon’s sense of humor (apparently
shared with his co-writers) elevates the entire pilot episode, and clearly
differentiates this acronym show from the CBS acronym shows like CSI and NCIS
in all their iterations. Yes, those shows have humor too, but not the
Whedonesque brand of postmodern, self-deprecating humor. Interestingly, rather
than distancing the show from the comics, as I feared that style of humor might
do, it serves to make the show feel more like a comic book. Everything in this
world is heightened—the jokes as well as the action—and that’s exactly as it
should be.

Hill is interviewing Agent Ward because
he has been selected to be on a new mobile task force whose purview includes
all the new superheroics and alien technology popping up around the world after
the apocalyptic events of Marvel’s The Avengers (generally referred to as “the
Battle of New York”). He’s not happy about it. “Why was I pulled out of Paris?”
he demands.

“That you’ll have to ask Agent
Coulson,” Hill replies. Coulson, filmgoers will recall, is the S.H.I.E.L.D.
agent created specifically for the movies, who first popped up in Iron Man
(2008). Since then, the fan-favorite character played by Clark Gregg has gone on
to appear in Iron Man 2, Thor, various Marvel short films, and, of course, the
Whedon-directed megahit Marvel’s The Avengers. And in the last one (spoiler
alert, for the two readers who still haven’t seen that movie), he died. Audiences
know that, and so does Grant.

“Uhh, yeah,” he says. “I’m clearance
Level 6. I know that Agent Coulson was
killed in action, before the Battle of New York. Got the full report.”

At that point, Coulson himself emerges
from the darkness and intones, “Welcome to Level 7.” Here another show might queue the bombastic
music and go to commercial, but Whedon being Whedon adds a comedic zinger,
explaining the dramatic entrance. “Sorry, that corner was really dark and I
couldn’t help myself,” Coulson explains apologetically. “I think there’s a bulb
out.”

The rest of Coulson’s
hand-picked unit includes ace pilot Melinda May (Ming-Na Wen), who’s clearly no
stranger to combat, either, and geeky tech duo “Fitzsimmons,” which really
refers to male nerd Leo Fitz (Iain De Caestecker) and his inseparable female
counterpart Jenna Simmons (Elizabeth Henstridge). Their first mission is to
track down and hopefully aid a new superhero who’s just popped up in Los
Angeles, dubbed by the papers “the Hooded Hero” and played by Angel’s J. August
Richards. To do that, they’ll need to enlist the aid of a sexy,
sassy-but-slightly-vulnerable female “hacktivist” (oh how I hate that word!)
Skye (Chloe Benett). Over the course of the pilot she’ll go from wanting to
expose the secret government agency through her one-woman Anonymous-like “organization,”
The Rising Tide, to becoming their newest recruit.

The Hooded Hero turns out to
have a connection to this summer’s Marvel blockbuster Iron Man Three, and his
storyline proves a very effective dress form on which to hang the character
interactions that serve as the fabric of the pilot. I was impressed with the
relative ease with which Whedon & Co. managed to work an introduction to the
world, introductions to a whole slew of characters, seeds for ongoing
plotlines, and a mission-of-the-week story into one cohesive narrative. At this
they succeed better than many pilots.

Those characters are clearly
meant to be the series’ heart, though, and for the moment they remain its most
problematic aspect. From the pilot alone, I’m not sure who’s meant to be the
lead. I presume that it will be Skye, but while Bennett is a very appealing
actress, she’s probably the most hackneyed character of the batch, a Standard
Whedon Type. It also struck me as a bit odd to have two young, white, brunette female
geeks on the show, the science geek Simmons and the computer geek Skye. So far
they seem quite similar, and of the two, Henstridge’s Simmons scored a much
bigger impact.

But perhaps the lead is supposed
to be Coulson. He’s the recognizable face right now, and certainly afforded the
most on-screen awe in the way he’s shot and talked about—and possibly in
screentime too. But what made that character work so well in the movies was, as
a friend of mine put it, that he was completely square. He was the
quintessential faceless government agent, and the humor came from the fact that
as the films proceeded, he was given a face—a very likable face, in fact. But likable works better in small doses in
movies than it does as the agent in charge on a S.H.I.E.L.D. show. Comics readers are used to having Nick Fury
in charge, and though the cigar-chomping, eye-patched “S.H.I.E.L.D. ramrod” (as
Stan Lee dubbed him in his inimitable and incessant word-packed caption
bubbles) may have started out as more caricature than character, there’s no
denying his utter gravitas. Samuel L. Jackson plays a version of Fury more
based on Marvel’s Ultimate line of comics from this century (which was in turn
based on Jackson himself, making it an easy enough part for him to play) than
on the Sixties hero, but there’s no denying his gravitas either. An
organization like S.H.I.E.L.D. needs a Nick Fury, and Coulson doesn’t fit the
bill. For one thing, Gregg smiles way too much to be a “ramrod!”

Or perhaps Ward is meant to be
the lead in this ensemble. He’s the one we’re first introduced to, in a nifty little mini-movie
that showcases the heightened espionage action of the S.H.I.E.L.D. world. (I
really appreciated that like the David Goyer-penned telefilm of a
decade-and-a-half prior, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. really goes for that blend of
espionage and super-science, rather than just settling for being an
X-Files-style paranormal investigation squad.) And he’s the closest thing to a
ramrod in the bunch. (Well, actually Melinda May has that potential, too, but
we don’t see enough of her in the pilot to know for sure.) But Dalton seems a
bit too unsure of himself in the role, so far, to be leading man material. (He excels,
however, when afforded a chance at light comedy thanks to a truth serum. For me, the comedy always worked in this pilot.)

So we’re left with a
S.H.I.E.L.D. in need of a Nick Fury, but given the unlikelihood of luring movie
star Jackson to television, that was always the challenge. (Though I fully expect him to cameo at some point.) My friend pondered
the point of a superspy show without superspies, but I think Whedon and his
cohorts have adopted an interesting alternative take. This is the rare spy show
that has more Marshalls than Sydneys, more Q’s than 007’s. What are we to make
of all these nerds running around? Well, in this geek-chic/Wiki-leak era of
nerds as heroes, perhaps that’s precisely the right take for our time. Given
how much I like the framework and the humor, I’m certainly willing to go with
them on this ride and see how it pans out, though I really would like a clear
ramrod for all these geeks to support.

Futuristic, out-there spy-tech
has always been a hallmark of S.H.I.E.L.D., since you could get away with a lot
more out-there concepts in a comic book than you could on the big screen (Bond)
or television (U.N.C.L.E.). With no budgetary constraints, Stan Lee, Jack
Kirby, and especially Jim Steranko were able to create crazy gadgets that Q
could only dream of. So how do those gadgets which owe their very existence to “you
can’t do this on television” imaginations fare when finally translated, five
decades later, to television? Foremost among those incredible creations of the
Sixties was the mobile S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters, a massive flying aircraft
carrier dubbed the helicarrier which hovered high above the earth. Since the
helicarrier was superbly realized in Whedon’s Avengers movie, I was hoping we
might see it on TV as well. The CG models were already made, and perhaps they’d
saved some standing interior sets. Sadly, there’s no sign of the helicarrier in
the pilot. Instead, this unit uses a huge black transport plane as its mobile
base of operations. (Oddly, it’s emblazoned with a huge S.H.I.E.L.D. logo, as
are their Hummers, which seems strangely conspicuous for a secret spy agency!) Logo
aside, the plane actually makes a lot of sense, given that it only needs to
convey a small group of people, not all of S.H.I.E.L.D. (It’s also pretty
impressive in itself for a TV budget.) Other S.H.I.E.L.D. tech fares well,
overall. Ward utilizes some cool spy
gadgets in his caper at the beginning, and Fitzsimmons have their own array of
future-tech they use to investigate the scene of an explosion. But the best of all comes at the episode’s
conclusion. [Minor SPOILERS follow!] Agent Coulson drives a red ’62 Corvette convertible. Other characters make fun of him for clinging to an
antique, but in the final moments of the pilot, he demonstrates just how cool
an antique can be when he pushes a button on the console and (Steranko and
Kirby fans will see this coming), the wheels fold horizontally out of the wheel
wells, becoming hover platforms, and the car lifts off and zips away toward the
camera!

I’ll be honest. All I really wanted out of a S.H.I.E.L.D. TV
series was to see that Kirby concept of a flying spy car realized on screen,
and it’s realized beautifully. (Nick Fury’s Sixties hovercar was a Porsche 907,
and later hovercars in the comics have paid blatant homage to the vehicle that
inspired their forebear by using Aston Martin bodies, but the classic ‘Vette works
just fine for me!) I actually clapped out loud, alone in my living room, when
that happened. And then I rewatched the scene several more times. I want the toy! Whatever minor quibbles I had with the show up till then, I was completely sold in that
moment, and am eagerly on board for the rest of the season. I just hope ABC has
the budget to give us an awesome flying car chase during Sweeps.

For a less favorable opinion on
the S.H.I.E.L.D. pilot from a man who has more right to criticize it than
anyone else in the world, you can read a review at The Hollywood Reporter by
Jim Steranko himself! I do agree with most of his points, though they didn’t
diminish the overall impact of the show for me. In an incredible coup for THR,
Steranko (who has recently become a Twitter superstar) will be providing weekly Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. recaps at the trade site. Based on the first one, Marvel should
really consider hiring him as a consultant for the series! (He’s given a
special thanks at the end, along with Ultimates creators Mark Millar and Bryan
Hitch. Stan Lee and Jack Kirby are also given credit up front for creating the
comic book concept.) Of course thanks to THR, they’ll be able to read his
characteristically candid advice for free every week (that must be daunting for
the writers!), so maybe they’re better off saving the dough for that flying car
chase….

ABC will re-air the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. pilot on Thursday, September 26 at 8pm EST.

Saw the first two episodes last night and thought they were great. Sure, some clichés in there, but it IS based on a comic-book world, after all. Coulson is well-written too, and some of the better dialogue was pretty funny if you like smart-ass responses (which I do).

I guess the benchmark for me, will always be the world which Christopher Nolan created using the comic-book world characters. I would also add the original Batman animated series and what Bruce Timm and his friends wrote for a Saturday morning cartoon show.

The second episode of SHIELD's plot could be summed up with: this new diverse group are starting to work together. I can watch The Dirty Dozen for this.

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About Me

Though I post here under the name Tanner, my real name is Matthew Bradford, and I'm a screenwriter living in Los Angeles. I'm coauthor of the graphic novel Night and Fog and I co-wrote and co-produced the 2014 horror feature Dead Within.